Safety appliance for railways.



G. I. PONDER.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAYS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29, 1913.

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GEORGE I. PONDER, OF JARRELL, TEXAS.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

atented Nov. 18, 1913.

Application filed May 29, 1913. Serial No. 770,768.

To a tUlLOl/t it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnoncn I. lonnnn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jarrell, in the county of WVilli-amson and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Appliances for Railways; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has relation to railways, and is in the nature of a safety appliance to prevent spreading of the rails.

The primary object of the invention is to provide means, to be applied to railway rails, whereby they will be effectively prevented from spreading, thereby preventing the horrible accidents which very often occur on account of such spreading.

A further object of the invention is to provide a safety device to prevent spreading of the rails of the railway, such device to be of a construction to permit it to be readily applied to a railway in course of building.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved device for preventing the spreading of railway rails, so constructed that it may be applied to rails already laid.

WVith these objects in view, the invention consists in the improved construction, arrangement and combination of the parts of a device of the character specified, which will be hereinafter fully described, and afterward specifically claimed.

In order that the construction and operation thereof may be readily comprehended, I will now proceed to fully describe my invention in connection with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an approved embodiment thereof, and in which drawings,

Figure 1 represents in perspective, a portion of a railway having applied thereto my improved safety device. Fig. 2 represents the same in top plan view. Fig. 3 represents a sectional view taken on the plane indicated by the broken line 33 of Fig. 2.

Like reference characters mark the same parts wherever they occur in a plurality of the figures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings in general, 5 and 6 indicate two ties which may be made of any suitable material and of any usual and approved form, the ties forming no part of my invention.

7 and 8 indicate rails of any ordinary 01 approved construction, provided with suitable heads and webs, and with the usual base flanges 9 and 10. These rails may be secured to the tics in any suitable or approved manner, usually by means of spikes ll driven into the ties and having heads overlapping the edges of the base flanges 9. It has been the history of railways that these spikes often prove inellicientin preventing the spreading of the rails and the causing thereby of serious accidents by the derailment of the trains passing over the rails.

In order to effectively prevent the spreading of the rails, I have provided a strong metal bar 19. of a sullicient length to reach from outside to outside, and slightly beyond the base flanges of the opposite rails, and have also provided these bars 12 with heads 13, 1?) which are undercut, and when the device, consisting of the bar 12 and the heads, is applied to the railway. these heads overlap the outer base flanges of the rails, the outer edges of said base flanges being seated in the undercut of the head.

WVhen it is desired to apply my invention to railways already in use, I provide the bar 12 at one end with an integral undercut head 13, the opposite end of the bar, as at 1.2, projecting some distance beyond the opposite rail. and provided with a series of longitndinal slots 1 1 in said projecting end. I also provide for this construction of safety device, the separate undercut head 13, which is adjustably secured to the bar 12 by means of bolts 15 passing through said heads and through the series of slots 11 and secured therein by suitable nuts 16, and in order to properly adjust, the heads 13 upon the outer edge of the base flanges of the rail, a wedgeshaped key 17 is driven in each of the slots outside of the head 13, thus firmly seating the l rad over and upon the base flange 9.

The operati on of fitting this safety device to railways in course of construction or of rebuilding will be obvious. ()ne rail having been set and secured to the ties and the heads set at proper distances apart, my safety clevice is passed beneath that rail until the head 13 on that side firmly fits over the outside edge of the base flange. The other head is now in proper position to receive the other rail which is simply slipped under the head prior to fastening the rail to the ties by means of the spikes. In applying the safety device to a railway already constructed, the removable parts comprising the head 13, 

